Persona based content marketing at the Nobis Hotel

Have you noticed that nearly all hotel websites are exactly the same?

There's the photo of the property on the front, the "reserve a room" widget usually in the top left and a bunch of boring, superlative language. Basically the sites are interchangeable. I just booked a hotel in California for later in the month and the three hotels I considered looked like they had all been designed by the same agency.

Several months ago I stayed at the Nobis Hotel in Stockholm. I made the choice myself based on - you guessed it - the site. This hotel website seemed different.

That difference continued as my wife Yukari Watanabe Scott and I checked in and explored the property. It seemed so perfect that we had to find out why. So we met with Ana Maria Nordgren and Oliver Geldner to learn more.

Nobis Hotel buyer persona

Oliver told us the buyer persona of the people they attract to the Nobis are frequent travellers who are sick of sterile chain hotels and want something different. They make their own decisions on where to stay using the web and social media. Buyers want upscale luxury but in a modern style, not the old-world traditional style.

As Oliver is going through this with us, I stole a glance to my wife. "That’s us!" I almost shouted. How cool that we were actually attracted to the hotel based on buyer persona created by Oliver and his colleagues!

The persona of the Nobis Hotel

The most fascinating story that Oliver told us about Nobis Hotel marketing was the persona they use when they communicate for the hotel on social networks like Facebook. This is what Oliver told me is the Nobis persona he uses on social networks:

"The Nobis Hotel is a grand old lady who lives in a vast apartment in Stockholm. She's a dame of means. She has a cocktail party starting every day at 11:00 am and is slightly tipsy by 5:00 pm and that is when she is communicating to you via social networks as a friend.

The Nobis is a Swedish hotel, but she insists on communicating in English even though the majority of guests are Swedish.

She has a sense of humor and has interesting things to say. She wants to be relevant, have a sense of humor and not take herself too seriously."

*** WOW!! How cool is this description??!! ***

Storytelling at the Nobis

Here are a few short stories I pulled from the Nobis Hotel Facebook page. I can see the slightly tipsy grand old dame writing them:

"Animal question of the week: 'I am travelling with a duck, and would need a room with a tub'. I can't wait to see the cleaning ladie's face when she comes in to make up the room ! Well at least today we got nice weather, for ducks..."

And this:

"Note to all parents of 3-old boys: there is a subtle but very distinct difference between peeing in the steam room and peeing into the steam room. The first can be the sign of an emergency, the latter is a signal you might have a hooligan on your hands...."

Isn't this fantastic! Can you imagine a big chain hotel communicating like this on social networks? Not a chance!

Amazing way that the Nobis looks for words and phrases that are important for their business.

Oliver told me that he does a semantic analysis of the Nobis Hotel listings on travel review sites such as Trip Advisor to find out what words and phrases visitors use in their reviews. These are then used in Nobis marketing.

So rather than make up their SEO terms they actually use the terms like "beautiful modern hotel in Stockholm" that people use in social networks as their SEO phrases.

Love it!

Offline content marketing at the Nobis

Amazingly, the Nobis Hotel published a book! There is a copy in each room and in the common areas. I thought it was so cool that I purchased a copy.

The hardcover book explores how they created the hotel all the way down to fine points like the typefaces of the written communications and the furniture and fabrics used throughout.

There is a section of the book talking about the original building which was a bank made famous by the robbery and hostage taking that came to be known as The Stockholm Syndrome.

Oliver told us it was not conceived as a marketing book but rather as a way to tell stories about the choices of what materials and designs were chosen and why. They did not create what Oliver would call “an artificial brand” but instead focus on the actual stories of how the hotel was built and the book shows all of that to guests like us.

As a marketer and author I found the book fascinating and had never seen anything quite like it.

Content marketing even offline!

Thank you Oliver for taking the time to share what you are doing at the Nobis. In a world of sterile and boring marketing, you are doing it right. Keep up the great work.

Comments

[Robert Rose]

D - Spectacular example of storytelling - and creating the brand hero (or in this case heroine)...

They've so clearly drawn a clear, well rounded character - and by so doing can create a fulfilling story. And I love how their buyer persona avoids all semblance of a "demographic" and instead focuses purely on what the buyer *desires*.... It's not about wealth, or age, or geographic origin... It's about the "frequent traveler who wants a modern, upscale luxury".... Age be damned!

Thanks for sharing... this is just wonderful.

[David Meerman Scott]

Hey Robert -- I am stunned by how great this example is. Glad you like it. Amazing how a few smart people in a boutique hotel can do so much while the huge hotel chains cannot.

[Kendy_Sproul]

I love the social media persona they created with the grand old lady. Original. Highly inventive. Storytelling at its finest. What a strong marketing strategy! Nobis Hotel, I applaud you.

[Adele Revella]

Great story David. You're right on all counts -- this is a fascinating example of understanding and targeting a buyer persona with perfectly pitched marketing. And yes, big companies find this much more difficult to accomplish.

You might conclude that this bodes well for all of the entrepreneurs out there.

But I wouldn't count the big guys out -- big companies are slower to change, but I'm seeing a lot of progress on buyer personas in companies large and small. My sense is that buyer focus will soon be the exception, not the rule.

[Juntajoe]

Great stuff David. I've seen hotels do a number of integrated content marketing programs like this, but I think you've identified one of the best. LOVE the persona description as well. And of course, print is still so critical a channel with this group of people.

Thanks for sharing.

[Remco Janssen]

No need to ask if you had fun in Stockholm, David!

[Fabriziofaraco]

Great Article! An article that all the small biz entrepreneurs have to read to understand content based marketing. It's really true that social media marketing is not just marketing on social media. Remarkable!

[Johanneke ter Hennepe]

Excellent example of creating a buyer persona and the content marketing program based on this. Thanks.

[Pamela Muldoon]

How fantastic! Their use of description and emotion is spot on as well. This is a great real-life example that any business, regardless of size, could take to heart. Thank you for sharing this, David!

[David Meerman Scott]

Thanks for all these great comments!

After I posted this, the @Nobis_Hotel responded to me in this tweet http://twitter.com/#!/nobis_hotel/status/131498863910592512 with this classic tweet:

@dmscott Thanks David ! Very flattered and tipsy with joy I am about your comments reg #nobishotel and #Stockholm! Hugs @nobis_hotel

[Marvin Kane]

If I had the means and the time I would get myself and my wife to Stockholm TODAY and stay a while with the "grand old lady in her vast apartment ..." Such a brilliant, engaging and seductive buyer persona. I'm thinking of the picture one sees of the Messrs. Marriott Jr. and Sr. that graces the lobby of every Marriott hotel and picturing them coming up with a buyer persona like the Nobis. NOT!!! BTW, great video on the Nobis homepage.

[David Meerman Scott]

Marvin - Closest thing any hotel chain has is Paris Hilton -- now she's got persona! THanks for pointing to the video - I had not seen that before.

[Cliff Lewis]

Wow. What a dream project. Any idea what sort of process guided their semantic analysis?

[David Meerman Scott]

Cliff -- Sorry I am not sure.

[Anne Sorensen]

Terrific - thanks David! Really loved their analysis of words and phrases in reviews for SEO. It seems so obvious yet perhaps not commonly done - relying more on other tools. A great example overall of buyer personas.

[Oliver]

Hi Cliff! Tipsy lady here:)
The "process" I used for SEO was really basic keywords describing the hotel, then after a few months removing negative keywords (the ones I did not want to associate searches with) and replacing them with descriptive keywords I picked up on semantic search tools. The idea was to optimise CPC, reduce bounce rate and improve conversions. Worked like a charm!
Drop me a line if you want to chat some more!
And thanks Dave for all this! I feel humbled by all this attention:)

[David Meerman Scott]

Oliver -- you totally deserve the attention. Thanks for spending time with me! David

[Ray Hodge]

I love the fact that they are able to align who they are as a core business with the needs and wants of their key customers (not having to make stuff up). Nice example of integration.

[Colin Warwick]

Great story, David. I'm curious: how did you you find their web site initially? (word of mouth? Google search phrase? other?)

[David Meerman Scott]

Ray -- exactly. No "MSU" - making stuff (or S#IT) up.

Colin -- I asked someone and got the names of about 10 Stockholm hotels. Went to each site and chose the Nobis.

[Eugene]

The book from the Hotel sounds interesting. How can I purchase a copy?

[David Meerman Scott]

Eugene - contact the hotel.

[Mitch]

Its feels good to read article like this. Ur article express ur thoughts and ur interest in social communication. Really admirable thought.
I recently read a post comparing direct marketing to content marketing and thought you might want to check it out. http://www.inboundsales.net/blog/bid/48652/Direct-Marketing-vs-Content-Marketing-What-Works-Best-For-Lead-Generation

[Julie Squires]

So perfect, David. I'm sure the big chains are noticing. Thanks for adding value.

[DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel & Suites Pittsburgh Downtown]

There are well known hotels which do not need any advertising or changes in their marketing habits. Their brand name is a guaranty of luxury and great welcoming in the establishment.

[Jonathan Bowker]

Hi David, I was really impressed by the Nobis use of Social Media when you first wrote this article. I was on my way to Thailand to consult a hotel on Social Media strategies and used Nobis and The Roger Smith in New York as examples. Nobis seem to have abandoned their stately persona, do you know if there was any particular reason or did the media exposure get to much for a grand old lady?

[David Meerman Scott]

Hi Jonathan. I haven't checked in with the Nobis since I wrote the piece.

You should definitely check out The Lodge at Chaa Creek as another example. I wrote about them here.
http://www.webinknow.com/2012/09/how-to-create-awesome-web-content-and-achieve-top-search-engine-rankings.html